


Folie Á Deux

by quoquettish



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Intrigue, Mutual Annoyances to Friends(?) to Better Friends Who Cuddle Sometimes, Pre-Relationship Dirty Pair, Psychological Guerrilla Warfare, Romance, Slow Burn, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-14 13:54:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20601887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quoquettish/pseuds/quoquettish
Summary: He expected deception. He didn't expect her to go for the heart.Alternative Title: Local Man Gets His Metaphysical Shit Rocked By Accidental Emotional Terrorist





	Folie Á Deux

**Author's Note:**

> Folie à deux (“madness shared by two”) refers to a disorder in which a delusional belief is shared by two parties, with symptoms such as paranoia and hallucinations being transmitted from one individual to the other or back and forth between the two. It occurs most often in situations where the two parties in question are living in close proximity but are physically and/or socially isolated from the outside world.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"I’ve always appreciated your dedication to professionalism when it comes to the job, Mercury,” she observes, as the corners of her lips prick up ever so slightly in another mirthless gesture. _

The Assignment

It’s well after the manor’s residents have settled in for the night when Mercury’s eyes abruptly snap open in the near perfect dark of his sleeping quarters. The ripple of unease that awakened him in the first place has already made its way from the end of his spine all the way up to the base of his skull when he finally identifies the source of the disturbance. One of the ever-present Grimm that populate Salem’s stronghold—this one a lanky, tentacled monstrosity of the sort that is often tasked with delivering messages between the witch and her vassals—hovers silently at his bedside, just a few paces outside striking range.

The grey-haired youth’s eyebrows narrow in irritation once he recognizes the uninvited late-night visitor. Mercury is rather unflappable by virtue of the nature of his line of work, but the relative ease with which the…_whatever it is_…manages to slip in and out of people’s personal space practically unnoticed will never _not_ be at least mildly unnerving. He sits up in bed with a small sound of disgruntlement and regards the Grimm a bit warily as it floats at his fore, a single clawed tentacle extending out towards him slightly, only to curl in on itself in a crude beckoning motion.

This is a summons.

Grunting lightly in acknowledgement, tempered with no small amount of annoyance at having had his sleep disturbed so abruptly, the young assassin promptly slides out of bed and shuffles over to snatch a t-shirt out of the pile of clean laundry that’s been sitting atop the small settee that populates one side of his room for what has to be going on a week now. Disturbingly, the creature follows him at a distance of less than two paces as he does so, the peculiar, glass-like panopticon that crowns the pinnacle of its form looking for all the world like an unblinking eye as it hangs in mid-air, watching his every move while he quickly tugs on the garment and makes his way to the door.

He doesn't bother putting on his boots on the way out; the faint echo of metal clanking against varnished hardwood trails him like a ghost as he follows the beast down the long hallway and up one flight of steps to the manor’s eastern spire.

Obviously they’re headed for Cinder’s room, though what the dark-haired woman could possibly want with him at this hour he has no idea. Something in his gut tells him that whatever it is, it can’t be anything good.

The Grimm comes to a halt once it reaches the door to the Fall Maiden’s quarters, hovering off to the side in what almost feels like an expectant manner as he approaches. 

“You may enter,” sounds a familiar commanding tone from inside when Mercury raps the backs of his knuckles against the sturdy wood of the door.

Cinder slowly closes the aged tome that she appears to have been perusing as her ashen-haired disciple casually saunters in, setting it down beside her on the deep-red lounge chaise upon which she is currently seated and gesturing for him to close the door behind himself.

“My apologies for summoning you at this hour, dear Mercury. I hope I didn’t disturb your rest,” comments the dark-haired woman cordially when he comes to stand before her, eyebrows quirking slightly in expectation as he waits for the Fall Maiden to reveal what exactly it is he’s even doing there.

“I’m up now,” he shrugs impassively.

“And I’m sure you must be wondering right now why it is that I sent for you,” she replies, studying his face appraisingly as she speaks, “So allow me to get right to the point.

“Tell me, Mercury…What do you think of Emerald?”

Mercury pauses momentarily as an assortment of images, sounds and impressions surface in his minds eye at the abrupt mention of the thief—he certainly didn’t see that one coming. Brow furrowing slightly in contemplation, he briefly catalogs his partner’s strengths and weaknesses in his head.

_‘Cute, fun to annoy…_ ** _magnificent_ ** _ hind-view…kind of a habitual killjoy…respectable pranking sensibilities though…stingy as **fuck...**smells good…**definitely** puts pineapple on pizza—’_

“She’s…capable,” the assassin settles on at last, shrugging noncommittally, “A quick study, competent fighter, calm under pressure...stamina and Semblance control could definitely use some work.”

Cinder raises an eyebrow at his uncharacteristically thoughtful response, crossing her legs as she leans forward in her seat slightly to study his face for a moment. He can feel the heat from the Fall Maiden’s curious, brimstone irises boring into his own flat, granite colored ones as he makes a point of meeting her gaze dead-on, taking note—not for the first time since their return from Beacon—that something is tangibly different about their leader.

Cinder’s affect still carries the same air of imperiousness as ever, her posture and tone just as arch and condescending as the day they met; but there’s something not quite the same about her Aura. Mercury can feel it—an odd sort of tension about her energy that wasn’t there before, like a subtle ripple across the surface of an otherwise still pond. It would be easy to miss if he hadn’t just spent the better part of a year at her every beck and call, but it’s undoubtedly there—this odd sense of uneasiness that infuses the very air around her, leaving it crackling with potential energy, ready to ignite at any moment. 

Somehow Mercury gets the sense that it’s precisely this change in the Fall Maiden’s overall demeanor that has brought them to this exact moment—him, standing here, wondering what could possibly have prompted their highhanded and heretofore unfailingly confident leader, who has been distant and inscrutable at best for months, to suddenly summon him to a private meeting in the middle of the night, just before they depart for their next assignment.

“So, I take it that you’ve been satisfied with her performance thus far…Is that correct?” she continues, quirking a single dark eyebrow as she stares at him critically, “As I recall, the two of you spent quite a bit of time together for your last assignment. Would you say that you and your partner are…close?”

The impromptu interrogation about the nature of his relationship with the green-haired girl admittedly takes him off guard. He has no idea where this is coming from or why it required a direct summons at nearly 1 am in the morning, but he knows he’s decidedly out of his element and unprepared here, which is most likely what Cinder was aiming for by summoning him so suddenly. Mercury groans internally—feeling out an opponent through seemingly aimless small-talk and other forms of petty intrigue really are more of Emerald’s thing—he’s far better suited to wet work, as evidenced by his rather extensive kill-list. However, sensing that how he proceeds from here could have very serious repercussions on where the rest of the conversation goes—not to mention their upcoming mission, Mercury switches gears and prepares to meet his superior blow for blow as best he can, slipping into a frame of mind not unlike the one he reserves for feeling out a new opponent at the outset of a fight. 

“Emerald is good at what she does and the two of us work well together,” he responds, voice losing all trace of its usual pliancy and mirth as he drops his default persona and purposefully infuses a tinge of steely indifference into his tone, “That’s all.”

“I see…” a small smile, one that does not nearly reach her eyes, spreads across the dark-haired Maiden’s face at his response, “Then it would seem that I was right to come to you first.”

A muscle in between his shoulder blades that he hadn’t even realized he was tensing finally loosens at her words of appraisal—apparently that was the correct answer.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Straight to the point, as usual. I’ve always appreciated your dedication to professionalism when it comes to the job, Mercury,” she observes, as the corners of her lips prick up ever so slightly in another mirthless gesture. Cinder leans back in her seat a bit as she speaks, re-crossing her legs and folding her hands atop her lap, apparently ready to talk business now that her brief assessment of his suitability for whatever task she has in mind is complete.

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, our dear Emerald hasn’t been quite her usual cool, collected self lately. Since our victory at Beacon, I’ve begun to notice an uncharacteristic air of self-doubt and hesitation in her which, sadly, does not appear to be improving with time,” continues the dark-haired woman, small smile swiftly fading away as she continues, such that her mouth is set in a thin, dispassionate line, “And considering that our upcoming trip to Mistral can be expected to result in some very similar fallout to that which we saw in Vale, I can’t help but find myself feeling a bit…_concerned_…as to whether or not your lovely partner is still up for the job ahead.”

She’s noticed too.

Inexplicably, Mercury feels the beginnings of something unpleasant start to churn around in his gut, but he keeps his expression carefully disaffected as he listens to Cinder elaborate on her reason for calling him here in the middle of the night. He can’t say he hasn’t had similar thoughts—Emerald _has_ been a bit off since the fall of Beacon Academy. However, he can’t help but scoff internally at the none-too-subtle implication that the green-haired thief might actually be considering…What exactly does Cinder even think she’s going to do anyway? Defect? Stage a mutiny? _Emerald Sustrai? _Against _Cinder Fall?_ The very proposition is laughable, especially considering the fact that if he were betting on which one out of the two of them were more likely to defect given the right circumstances and motivation, it would _definitely_ be himself. This job is no more than a means to an end for him…but to Emerald? It’s so much more than that. The young thief’s conviction and dedication to the cause, or rather _to Cinder herself_, borders on the obsessive—so much so that he himself would consider the very fact that the dark-haired woman is willing to suspect her single most devoted vassal of treason further evidence of the Fall Maiden’s rapid descent into instability.

Following her defeat at Beacon, Cinder has become increasingly pedantic, and at times even unhinged—even more so than she was when she first brought him onto the assignment. The dark-haired woman has always been driven and extremely focused on her own personal goals, with a calculated sort of ruthlessness and cunning that keeps her at least three to four steps ahead of her opponents at all times—Mercury can even grudgingly admit to himself that he actually respects that about her in a way. But her loss to Ruby unearthed something desperate and pitiful in the Fall Maiden that he only saw grow while Cinder was in rehabilitation—a wretchedness of sorts, steeped in self-doubt and neuroticism that he now realizes has always been there to some extent, but has only just recently given way to actual paranoia.

Unbidden, the grey-haired youth feels an inexplicable twinge of irritation toward his partner prick at him directly following this revelation.

“…You want me to deal with her,” the young assassin concludes succinctly. He doesn’t need to hear the rest of her cryptic preamble to see where this is going—might as well get it over with so he can get back to bed. It’s late, and they’re supposed to be heading for the mainland first thing in the morning; he’d rather not waste any more good sleeping hours listening to his increasingly unstable boss detail her insecurity-driven ideations regarding his painfully affection-starved partner.

“There’s that professionalism again,” the Fall Maiden comments, eyes narrowing slightly in cool amusement, “As I’m sure you understand, this next assignment needs to end in a complete and unequivocal success. We cannot afford to leave any loose ends unaccounted for. On the other hand, Emerald has been an extremely loyal vassal thus far—she deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt. That's precisely why I want _you_ to find out whether or not your partner is still…_feeling up to the task at hand_.”

_'So she's not entirely sure yet either.'_

Mercury feels something deep in his chest loosen slightly at that particular revelation. Obviously, torture and other interrogation tactics are off the table now.

...Which means this just turned into an espionage mission. Not exactly his specialty, but still well-within his particular professional skill set.

“I take it you'll want me to be discrete, for obvious reasons," he infers, crossing his arms about his chest thoughtfully as the assassin in him immediately begins an inventory of his target's known habits and possible weaknesses, "Any other guidelines or stipulations I need to be aware of?”

“Just get it done,” Cinder says, tone dropping a half-octave as at last her smile evaporates into a rigid line to match her stony gaze once again, “Do whatever it takes, Mercury. Stay with her. Talk to her. Get _closer_ to her if you have to…do what you must, so long as you find out whether she’s going to pose an obstacle to us doing what we need to do or not.”

Mercury can’t help but scoff internally.

_‘We’._

Briefly, the thought of his partner—who is no doubt sound asleep in her bed right now, blissfully unaware that the very same leader into whom she has poured her unerring faith and devotion since the day he met her is in the process of putting out a potential hit on her at this very moment—crosses Mercury's mind, and he finds himself mentally sucking his teeth as another sharp twinge of anger flits through the forefront of his awareness. 

"...And if I find out she really is planning to dip on the operation?” Mercury queries, head cocking to the side ever so slightly as he follows the dark-haired woman’s train of thought through to its inevitable conclusion.

“Well…you’re an assassin, aren’t you?” Cinder replies archly, no hesitation evident in her tone whatsoever, “_Do your job_.”

The grey-haired youth stares back at his boss in mildly stunned silence for a moment, brow creasing minutely despite himself.

“Will that be an issue, Mercury?” she presses with raised eyebrows, picking up on his slight air of hesitation.

“Not for me, but…won’t that complicate things a bit? For the operation, I mean,” he answers smoothly.

“Emerald was a crucial asset to our last endeavor,” comes her dismissive reply, “However, I'm afraid Ms.Sustrai’s particular talents are no longer a strictly necessary component to our operations. As far as firepower is concerned, now that my full powers have been restored, we should have more than enough, and I’m more than confident that you’ll be able to pick up any slack that your partner’s…unfortunate dismissal...might create in the area of tactical support. In addition, Hazel will be joining us at the Academy once he’s completed his work in Vale, and Adam and his followers from the White Fang are already on the ground in Mistral finishing up their preparations. It would be…_regrettable_…to see her go, but Emerald is in no way indispensable.”

“So, you really want me to…?” the assassin confirms with a quirked eyebrow, making a vaguely suggestive gesture with his fingers.

“I assume that won’t be a problem considering the…_strictly professional nature_ of your association,” the Fall Maiden replies dismissively, “…Unless you’re telling me she’s too much for you to handle on your own?”

_'Is she fucking trolling me right now?'_

“Oh I can _definitely_ take Emerald,” he counters immediately, feeling an irrational twinge of resentment reflexively raise his hackles at the mere implication, “But she’s…scrappy. She won’t go down easy.”

_‘**Especially**_ _not for me. I might actually have to break a sweat for this one if it comes to that...’_

“Well then, it’s a good thing I have the best in the business on the job…isn’t it?” comes Cinder’s deceptively pleasant reply, accompanied by another smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

Mercury suppresses a small sigh of irritation as he at last comes to terms with the fact that the woman before him is indeed serious about this. As he does, traces of a familiar voice, abrasive and slightly slurred with the after-burn of strong alcohol, echo through his mind unbidden—a half-forgotten snippet of professional advice from one of those rare nights when M. Black The Senior had been slightly less than piss-drunk and in greater need of a venting wall than a punching bag.

_//”Megalomaniac types are all the same when it comes down to it. Uppity, paranoid, self-absorbed arseholes who know they’re hot shit…n' wear their superiority complexes like a suit o’ fuckin’ armor...insufferable bastards, the lot of ‘em,”// _Marcus slurs darkly in the back of his thoughts,_ //”Luckily for those in our…’highly esteemed’ line of business…_**_heheh_**_…the same things that make them so damn good at running the world...‘re also their greatest weaknesses. In their minds, they’re untouchable—but stick ‘em and they bleed just like any other pig. _**_Hah! _**_After that you can practically just sit back and watch them hang themselves with their own rope…__haha!_**_…ahahahahaha_****—**_”//_

“How much time do I have?” the grey-haired assassin says at last, gaze narrowing sharply as he forcibly ejects his dead sire’s unsolicited commentary from his thoughts.

“Three weeks.”

_‘Right up until the night before we hit Haven. Guess she's serious about the whole 'non-essential personnel' thing.'_

“…I’ll try not to leave a mess.” 

“There’s a good boy,” comes her low purr of approval, “Do get some rest now—we depart at dawn.”

The young assassin silently nods in acknowledgement as she dismisses him at last, before turning to make his exit, stomach literally roiling despite the peculiar sort of calm that has now settled over his thoughts.

“Oh, and Mercury?” Cinder calls suddenly, stalling him at the door, “In the event that this assignment does call for your more…_advanced_ services…

“Be gentle with her. It’s the very least she deserves.”

The dark-haired youth rigidly nods his understanding one more time before he finally slips through the doorway and back out into the nebulous darkness of the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this will be my first foray into the RWBY fandom (and also into anything even remotely hetero-normative in any fandom at all to be honest), meaning I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing. Tbh, I was originally gonna just leave this one in the drafts, but it was really burning a hole in my hard-drive for some reason, and I have a feeling there might be a few fans out there who have been wanting something like this and couldn't find it. I have a lot of fun things in mind for this fic and I want nothing more than to share it all with anyone who might be interested, because it gives me all the feels just thinking about it, but the thing is…I am only one person. A very booked and busy adult type person with work and school and other fics on my plate. I just haven’t got the resources to go all in on this one the way I really want to right now. 
> 
> For even half of the stuff I have in mind for this fic to have its desired impact, I'm basically going to be rewriting the last three seasons and fleshing out the backstories for multiple characters from scratch (Even Cinder gets an elaborate and emotionally gripping backstory in this one…let that sink in folks). So I humbly ask that you consider this first post more of a short teaser/coming soon trailer than a full-fledged chapter. I'll definitely be coming back to this fic as soon as I can, but be aware that it could take some time as I just can’t guarantee the level of consistency I’d like to at this time. 
> 
> That said, what you can expect from this story is a fairly Mercury-centric emotional roller coaster that really goes into the process of recovering from childhood trauma—particularly the struggle of deprogramming oneself from cycles of abuse and self-harm that prohibit growth—and unpacks some of the difficult emotions that come part and parcel to that journey. Due to the nature of the source material there’s also plenty of action, intrigue and humor involved, but the main goal is really to offer what I see as two grossly underserved characters who have a lot of potential a bit of the 3 ‘R’s: Redemption, Rehabilitation and Romance. Hopefully there are some other folks out there are who are into that sort of thing, because I sure am.
> 
> Anyway, thanks so much for reading, and I hope to have some more for you in the relatively near future!


End file.
